Availability Rule Matrix

Availability is more than just “do I have a slot open.” It’s “do I offer this trip on Saturdays? Do I require 48 hours notice? Is this a seasonal product that only runs May through September?” Freebo’s availability rule matrix gives operators precise control over all of it.

Rule types

Day-of-week — Mark specific days as bookable or blocked. A sunset tour that only runs Friday–Sunday, or a corporate team-building product that only books Monday–Thursday.

Time-of-day windows — Set earliest and latest departure times. A kayak tour that only goes out 8am–2pm won’t let guests book a 4pm slot.

Seasonal availability — Define date ranges when a product is active. A summer sailing program that runs June 1–August 31 automatically goes dark outside that window.

Minimum advance notice — Require X hours or days of lead time before a booking. Prevents same-day bookings on products that need prep, or ensures guests can’t book 30 minutes before departure.

Blackout dates — Block specific calendar dates for holidays, maintenance windows, or private events. Blackout dates override all other rules.

Rules are configured in the product’s Availability tab. They take effect immediately for guest-facing checkout. Existing bookings are not affected.

Conditional rules

A flat rule applies to every booking. Real operating policies aren’t flat — “no same-day bookings, but only on trips longer than three hours” or “block evening starts for large groups.” Freebo’s rules engine now supports conditions: a rule carries criteria and only fires when a candidate booking meets them.

Duration conditions — Gate a rule on trip length. A rule can apply only when the requested duration is at or under a threshold, at or over one, or inside a range — so a short charter and a full-day charter can follow different availability policies on the same product.

Guest-count conditions — Gate a rule on party size. Hold back a slot for small groups, or apply a stricter window once a booking crosses a headcount you set.

Conditions turn the matrix from “when is this product bookable” into “when is this product bookable, for this kind of booking” — encoding seasonal exceptions and size- or length-based policies directly, instead of splitting a product into near-duplicate listings to work around a single rule.

Blackout rules also gain an overlap mode. By default a time-window blackout blocks bookings that start inside the window — a trip that begins earlier and runs into it still passes. In overlap mode, any booking whose full span touches the window is blocked, which is what you want when the window represents a hard closure (a maintenance haul-out, a private event) rather than just a no-start period.

The rule editor reads conditions back on every save and shows them as plain-English condition badges — “duration ≤ 180 min,” “guests ≥ 8” — right on the rule, so what’s encoded is always legible at a glance.